Limited Inventory:
The first inventory I chose to look at was the inventory from DayZ as this is my favourite game and I'm very familiar with, this being a limited inventory as you can only carry so much as a player, therefore the player should think and choose what items to carry which would be useful when playing. Also this game being a survival game having a limited inventory it gives the game that realistic feel as in real life you can only carry so much therefore this inventory suits the game play. Now this inventory is fairly simple to open, by pressing G this menu appears showing everything that you have just on your player. All the items are listed along that listed along the left and are then visible on the right, making it easy to see what items and gear you have on you. Using items is really simple too, say you wanted to eat the can of pasta all you do is hover over it, right click and select eat pasta,or take painkillers or antibiotics it's really that simple. When wanting to pick something up all you do is when your stood near or looking at it from a close distance is open up the inventory and like shown on this picture the numbers on the right show what you've got in your inventory and how many but say your picking up water bottle, it would appear on the left saying water bottle but it would have 1 on the left hand side to show it isn't in your inventory. I personally find this inventory, suitable for the type of game DayZ is and the inventory is well laid out and I think it is simple and easy to use once you know how everything is laid out and appears. This type of inventory I could use to influence my design could be the overlay over the top of the game play instead of going into a separate screen. Also with this sort of inventory showing every item you have on you instead of 1 by 1 having to scroll through them or navigate through menus
Utility Belt:
The second inventory I looked at was the one off Battlefield 3, these inventories that can be accessed on the move and not interrupt game play, therefore this suits the game with it being a first-person shooter you can carry on trying to kill other players without huge interruption. As the player the way to switch weapons on the game is also very simple as on PC its just the scroll of your mouse, or on console by pressing a single button to swap from primary to secondary weapon. In Battlefield 3 size and weight does have a negative or positive effect on the player depending whats on there "utility belt". So say you have an LMG as your primary weapon this will slow you down and maneuverability I personally when playing Battlefield 3 easy to use as just by a quick scroll of my mouse I swap from my primary weapon to my knife, or say instead of reloading my primary weapon when in combat I can quickly swap to my pistol to try and keep myself alive. The simplicity of the whole inventory could influence my design, due to the easy swap from item to item.
Menu Based Inventory:
The third inventory I looked at was menu based inventories and the game I looked at was Sid Meier's Civilisation 5. Now with this game, the interaction with inventories can vary, you can deploy or move around squads or go and talk with other rulers of different areas of the world, Also you can look at the levels of learning on the game and what developing things will unlock and things like that. The menus are accessed by either drop down bars or separate screens depending on what your wanting to do. The menu based inventory does suit the game play because a lot of the time you have to look up your next move or research what you've got or going on around you before you make your decision. I personally quite like the inventory, there is quite a lot to take in at first as there are a lot of buttons on screen during playing and even when you go into a separate menu but it becomes easier once you know what each icon means or does. The menu based inventory could influence my design with having drop down bars or icons instead of buttons with text just to give the game that bit of difference.
